I love my family. They are awesome!!!
For those of you who have been following us over the years and those of you joining us for the first time, we have been focusing on kokanee fishing over the last couple of years and have been having a blast learning how to catch these tasty fish. There’s so much to learn and we always learn something each trip.
This past weekend, was a special weekend for our family. This weekend marked our 2nd annual weekend vacation to Moosehaven. We stumbled across Moosehaven Resort last summer during the terrible fires. We were supposed to go Halibut and Salmon fishing, but our trip was cancelled due to our friend’s boat having technical difficulties. We searched for a place to go for our vacation and were struggling with a direction to go. We looked into doing some pike and walleye fishing in Alberta, but came to the reality that we couldn’t escape the smoke wherever we went and also wanted to support a British Columbia resort during the fires. We learned that normally most resorts and VRBO’s are booked well in advance, but the fires had created cancellations and barriers of which people couldn’t make it to the Cariboo.
We booked our cabin, which otherwise would have been fully booked and headed south, into the fire. I’ll admit, we were nervous and ready to leave at a moment’s notice before we arrived. Upon arrival, we were amazed at how beautiful Moosehaven was and were able to relax enough to forget about the fires and the potential danger that was burning out of control.
Moosehaven has the perfect layout for a family with young children and children who need a little freedom to explore in the safety of a resort surrounded by like minded campers and cabin goers. We love the potential it has for our family to grow into the resort as we return each year.
Our first stop this trip was to Lone Butte Sporting Goods. We managed to make it before they closed, which turned out to be a valuable stop along the way (Ethan picked a winning combo for the trip). Before we opened the doors of the truck, we agreed on a budget of $60. I really wanted 2 Mack’s Shuttle Hawks and more moon jelly smile blades. As I was talking with Mark and Alton, I heard my wife say “I like this one” and was showing the boys what she had picked. My family had decided to forego the agreed upon budget and were selecting gear to make their own lures to try on the lake. I’ll be the first to admit, I saw an opportunity to slide a couple more Mack’s smile blade packages into the order and after it was all said and done we were over $100, but it was well worth it.
We said goodbye to Mark and Alton and headed off for dinner at the Iron Horse Pub, which is kid friendly at dinner time. The food here was amazing! Everyone at our table left full and talking about their dinner into the next day. We are definitely making this an annual migration for either a pre-trip lunch/dinner or post-trip family lunch to fill our bellies for the trip home.
We arrived at Moosehaven after dinner and slowly drove down the entrance driveway, which greets you with a view of the lake before you get to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. We met Russ at the stop sign as he was making his way back to the office. He stopped to greet us and we said a quick hello. Before I could get our truck into gear, our boys asked if they could get out and go play with their friends who had arrived a few hours prior. I don’t think I was half way thru saying yes, when both rear doors flew open and they were running across the field to meet up with their friends.
Our boys have been excited and had waited for this trip for a long time. We booked Moosehaven shortly after leaving last year, well in advance to ensure we got a cabin. We also had our friends and some of their family members book cabins and sites too.
The rain and wind this trip only lowered our spirits slightly and briefly as it came and went. The saying “if you don’t like the weather in the Cariboo, wait 15 minutes” held true for the most part, but left us wet and cold in between. We managed to “go with the flow” and planned our activities between the torrential downpours.
My docking experience was raised a few notches this trip and tested my abilities to tie knots on the dock. We had a brief panic attack when we barely made it back to the dock in time. A storm cloud came over the mountain and the wind picked up and started pouring. We raced back to the dock (a 25hp motor would have helped get back a little quicker). As we pulled up to the dock and made a perfect docking in the crazy wind, I was impressed with myself but knew the job wasn’t done yet. We had to tie up the boat before we were truly “off the water.” I frantically started tying up the back end (first mistake). Everything started to happen quickly from here. Ethan was warm and dry in our friends cabin, but Austin and Sarah were sitting up front getting soaked. As always, Sarah was hanging onto the dock while I was trying to tie up the back end. It started hailing and it felt like golf ball sized hail. Sarah was getting pelting on bare skin as she was wearing shorts because the weather was hot when we left. Later she would discover she had bruises from the hail. Austin got to experience his first hail storm first hand. He was tired, which didn’t help but started screaming as the hail started beating him up too. Sarah’s motherly instincts kicked in and she let go of the dock (second mistake) to shield Austin from the unforgiving hail. The front of my boat started swinging away from the dock and was almost 90 degrees to it. Thankfully I managed to swing the boat back around to the dock as I started to watch my family drift away from the dock in terror. The lesson learned here was always tie the front of the boat up so the wind can’t push the boat too far off the dock. Thankfully my boat is small and I was able to get it back and not go swimming after Sarah and Austin.
Besides the weather, this trip proved to be everything we want our children to experience as they grow up. Moosehaven Resort is a safe haven for our children to experience. They are comfortable enough to ride their bikes around, play safely in the water on their kayaks and play safely in the field and playground with other children and their friends. They ran around all weekend and seeing them so happy makes us think a weekend trip might not be enough. They are excited for next year already.
The kokanee fishing was pretty good. We managed to find a few different schools of kokanee and the lure combination Ethan made was putting more fish in the boat than any other lure we tried all weekend. The kokanee fought amazing for their size. We caught one kokanee that was 1lb 6oz and it fought like a 3lb kokanee. I really enjoyed catching Hathaway Lake kokanee this trip. they were scrappier than our local lake kokanee and made for an exciting fight for the boys and Sarah too.
My usual tactics helped put kokanee in the cooler this weekend. We had a couple fish hit while doing a throttle bump. A few more hit the outside rod on an “S” turn and a few more hit while lifting the downrigger ball a few feet. The depth wasn’t consist throughout the weekend and I caught fish in 20ft of water down to 45ft of water. 28ft off the downrigger seemed to be the most consistent depth.
As for gear, we tried lots of variations of lures and dodgers. The Brad’s Extreme Dodger paired with an orange Mack’s hoochie and smile blade were the top producer. Our Second best combination was a Mack’s 6 inch Sling Blade and a pink P-line hoochie topped with a Large chartreuse smile blade. Sunday was a more difficult day and we changed gear frequently to find what the kokanee wanted. The winning combo that turned around the morning was a pink Paulina Peak dodger paired with an orange Paulina Peak spinner with a moon jelly blade. All kokanee were caught on our newest trial batch of Canadian kokanee corn. Krill, Pro-cure Slam-Ola powder and pink Pro-cure dye worked well.
Another successful family adventure was also possible because we were able to find the balance between fishing and playing at the resort. We took the boys on separate fishing trips by themselves and they loved having quality one on one time with mom and dad. We believe this style of fishing trip (mixing fishing with other resort activities) has kept the boys more interested in fishing than when on our day trips.
We look forward to our 3rd annual family trip to Moosehaven Resort on Hathaway Lake. This is our family’s favorite place to date. We each get to bring home a memory that will last until next year.